Frank Chimero on His New Site
In describing some creative epiphanies he had while building his new site, Frank hit on two that resonated with me:
Accepting that it’s okay if the site looks “traditional,” and that I didn’t need to opt into a willfully esoteric design or interaction method to make a “statement.” Blegh to pointless statements.
Admitting that if I was writing a lot of markup or CSS, I was working against the grain of the web.
How very dao of him. I think that what makes a ‘designer’ a ‘web designer’ is the ability to recognize the grain of the web and a willingness to go with it. Being able to code is great, but paramount to that is the unique understanding designers who love the web possess. Convention can be good. Web technologies work best when they’re embraced all for their strengths and weaknesses. Great work, Frank! You’re one of the best web designers I know.